Review- STAR WARS: RETURN OF THE JEDI- THE ORIGINAL TOPPS TRADING CARD SERIES VOL. 3

STAR WARS: RETURN OF THE JEDI- THE ORIGINAL TOPPS TRADING CARD SERIES VOL. 3 (Abrams Comicarts, Second Printing, 2016; Hardcover)

Collects the red and blue sets of The Topps Star Wars Return Of The Jedi trading cards and stickers. 

I remember asking for the owner of the corner store to save me an empty box and he did. This was back in a time when a kid could wander around his neighborhood unsupervised. 

Nostalgia is a powerful thing. These Topps trading cards were one of the few ways to relive these movies in the days before home video and in a time when many homes (like mine) did not have cable television. I have gone over all of this in my reviews for the first two volumes in this line, so I'll skip the rest of that spiel and get to the meat of it. This series of books is a blast of nostalgia for those of us who were around to buy these cards at the time.

I managed to cobble together both sets of cards in 1983. I was surprised back then that there was only two sets while Empire had three, but it was a relief in a way since I started “officially” collecting comic books in January of 1983 and couldn't afford to split my money in two directions. Jedi was the last series of cards that I sought to complete. While I would buy packs of, say, Garbage Pail Kids and a few others afterward, I was never compelled to buy them all.

There's not much else to say. These are high resolution scans of the original cards, with the front on one page and the back side on the next page. Flipping through the book is similar to looking at a deck of the trading cards. If you love Star Wars, love trading cards, or are a younger fan who wants a chance to check out merchandise which was released at the time of the original trilogy then these books are a fun, relatively inexpensive way to relive the fun of buying these cards in 1983.

Junk Food For Thought rating: 5 out of 5.

The OCD zone- This is the part where I go into tactile sensations and materials of physical media. Those with heart conditions, high blood pressure, or women who are pregnant should exit my blog at their earliest convenience, as their safety cannot be guaranteed beyond this point.

This book is a small, chunky book clocking in at 528 pages. The cards and stickers are presented in their original size.

Paper stock: Thick coated stock with a slight sheen.

Binding: Sewn binding. The binding is very tight, requiring two hands to keep it open at all times. This is the result of the book block being glued square to the casing.

Dustjacket and Hardback cover notes: The dustjacket has a waxpaper feel to it, similar in spirit to the wrappers of the original cards. The image on the front of the paper casewrap is the stick of gum found in every pack of cards. The back cover of the hardback shows the stick of gum broken. The casewrap has a matte coating.